When Florida’s government unveiled a proposal this summer to trade 600 acres of a beloved St. Johns County wilderness preserve, Floridians of all political backgrounds felt blindsided.

Though the plan was scrapped after widespread protest, including from President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, questions remained about how an idea to give up land as precious as the Guana River Wildlife Management Area could be hatched outside the public eye.

Now, a Republican lawmaker is taking a first step to thwart the growing trend in state government that has shrouded recent land proposals in secrecy, including the Guana River ordeal.

State Rep. Kim Kendall, a Republican from St. Augustine, filed a bill Tuesday that would require a month’s notice when the state considers selling or trading conservation land. It would also require officials to explain why the land is no longer needed for conservation.

Kendall’s HB 441 would mandate that, at least 30 days before the governor and the Cabinet meet to review a land sale, state environmental regulators must publish the specific parcel details and their reasoning for the proposal on their website.

More public notice and a written explanation would also be required for conservation land that could be traded. Before a land exchange is reviewed by the state’s land acquisition council, the public would also have at least 30 days’ warning on the council’s website, according to the bill.

And if one of Florida’s five water management districts wants to sell or trade some of its public conservation lands? Under the new bill, taxpayers would get a 30-day notice then, too.

“We faced the alarming prospect of losing nearly 600 acres of this irreplaceable land to a developer with minimal notice and little transparency,” Kendall told the Tampa Bay Times in a statement. She said the Guana preserve is the heart of the district she represents where hunters, fishers and hikers can enjoy the outdoors.

“Thanks to the collective efforts of Floridians, we were able to stop this land swap, but it highlighted gaps in our laws,” Kendall said.

Kendall said her bill is designed to prevent similar threats to precious public lands by giving Floridians more heads up. In May, hundreds of her constituents lined Florida State Road A1A to protest the Guana swap, and Kendall was quick to oppose the idea and call for change.

The Guana proposal would have given a private holding company, The Upland LLC, the preserve land in exchange for a constellation of other properties in four counties. Asked by the Times who was behind the proposal, Gov. Ron Desantis wouldn’t say. Kendall’s bill doesn’t appear to require the state to disclose individual landowners who could conceal their identity behind a holding company.

Floridians first learned of the proposed swap about a week before officials were slated to vote. The proposal followed a similar pattern from Florida’s top environmental regulators.

For example, when the Times first reported the DeSantis administration’s now-abandoned proposals to develop nine state parks with golf courses and hotels, the public had less than six days to digest documents before a slate of simultaneous, in-person-only meetings where experts would be forbidden from answering questions. (Because the administration backed down from the parks plans, those meetings never happened.)

Last year, the administration also quietly granted the initial approval of a separate deal to trade more than 300 acres of the Withlacoochee State Forest to a luxury golf developer, with little opportunity for public input. That deal was abandoned earlier this year.

Kendall’s bill requires that any land being considered in a swap must have at least one appraisal.

Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne, filed an identical version to the House bill in the Senate on Tuesday.

Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida, said Floridians made it clear they expect better from their state government after The Upland LLC withdrew its proposal for the Guana land.

“Florida must ensure transparency, accountability and ample public notice on proposals that would affect conservation lands. And the state needs to show its math, demonstrating ecologically and financially why proposals meet Florida’s constitutional standard and are in the public’s interest, not just the applicant’s,” Wraithmell said in a statement.

Wraithmell added that Kendall and Mayfield’s bills will start to address the public’s transparency and timing concerns.

“We are grateful to and look forward to working with the sponsors as the bills move through the process,” she said.

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(Tampa Bay Times staff writer Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.)

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